


Mindreading

by ravelqueen



Category: Free!
Genre: Childhood, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon, baby!haru and baby!makoto give me life, blushing haru ftw, makoto is a cutie but also way too insecure, mali made me do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2147271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravelqueen/pseuds/ravelqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Makoto said what Haru was thinking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mindreading

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starsinew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsinew/gifts).



> I don't know, I just like to think about Mako's and Haru's early friendship and crying to Mali about it and then she made me write it.

“Haru-chan, do you want to get back?” Makoto asks. Haru hasn't moved from sitting on the bottom of the slide for a while now, and Makoto doesn't want him to get bored.

He only gets a shrug and a slight glare back, which is unsurprising but doesn't really solve his dilemma. “Do you want to use the swing?” he asks, already getting off the only functional one.

“It's fine.” Haru answers, head on his knees watching the sunset.

“Do you want to do something else?” he tries again, moving closer to Haru. Another shrug and he starts to get this feeling in his stomach he gets around Haru sometimes when he starts thinking about the fact that at any point in time Haru could realize that Makoto is a crybaby that gets scared too easily and stop hanging out with him.

He can feel tears gathering in his eyes, which is _stupid_ and wont _help._ He needs to be better. Haru is his first real friend and he can't lose him, just because he couldn't be _better._

He must have not moved his face away fast enough, because Haru gets that slightly alarmed look in his eyes like every time Makoto cries and stands up slowly. “We can go if you want to.” he says.

Which is just like him. He doesn't decide things a lot, except for other people's sake. Makoto doesn't understand why people call Haru cold, when they think nobody is listening, when it's so clear to Makoto how much Haru cares about  _everyone._

But he sounds extremely listless, even for Haru. Which, now that Makoto is thinking about it, is weird. He's clearly not having fun so why does he sound so wistful and sad at the thought of going back?

“You should come to us for dinner, if you don't want to go home”Makoto says. He doesn't know why, he normally always asks, even if he doesn't get an answer, because he knows how much it bothers Haru that his parents never do. But he looked at Haru's face and saw _I don't want to go home_ written there, so it made _sense_. 

Haru stops moving. It seems for a moment as if he's stopped breathing too, looking at Makoto with wide eyes. He just stares at him and clearly it must have been the wrong thing to say after all.

“Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't want to sound as if going home is a bad thing! Or that you have to come with me. Or that you have to do what I say” he's panicking in earnest now, because Haru still _isn't moving_ and he's done it now, he's been so careful, but this is it, this is going to be the moment Haru stops spending time with him, he needs to _fix_ this.

“We can stay here, too! Or you can stay on your own, if you don't want me here,” please, please don't say that's it, “Or if you are tired, you can go home, I'm sure you _do_ want to, I don't know why I thought you didn't -”

“Shut up.” Haru interrupts, but it's quiet, without any force behind it. He turns his head away, not saying anything else, but somehow Makoto thinks, calmed down, maybe he wasn't wrong after all. 

Makoto understands himself pretty well and he knows that at heart he is a coward. He jumps at small noises in dark rooms and starts crying when he thinks about his parents yelling at him. But maybe this one time, he can try to be brave, for Haru.

“You are coming for dinner, then?” he says quietly, bracing himself. 

Haru shrugs again, mumbling “Whatever.” But even though his head is turned down and away, Makoto can make out the slight, crooked smile on Haru's face. For this one moment, Haru looks pleased, even happy and Makoto is the luckiest, bravest person in the world.

He can feel the wide smile he always thinks looks silly cross his face and Haru, who has been watching him this whole time, can clearly see it, but instead of looking annoyed, he seems to relax a tiny bit.

“I'll ask my mom to make mackerel then.” he says and because everything seems easy right now he reaches out and hugs Haru. 

Makoto can feel Haru's arms rising and falling a few times, as if Haru just doesn't know what to do. They finally go limp and he just leans into the embrace instead, putting his weight on Makoto. He hugs him tighter in response, hoping Haru wont find it confining, but just needing to hold on for a bit.

He releases him when he feels Haru twitching and the moment his arms drop Haru whirls around, striding towards their houses without a word. Normally Makoto would be panicking again, but this time he managed to glimpse Haru's face before he managed to turn away. 

_Blushing suits him_ , he thinks. When he catches up, there is just the slightest dusting of red left on Haru's cheeks. Makoto hears the  _don't you mention this_ loud and clear. 

Later, he decides to go with his instincts once again and asks his mom if Haru can stay the night, because his parents are coming back late. Haru stops moving again, but his pause is much shorter and his smile is even less noticeable. Makoto thinks he might have dreamed the whispered  _thank you_ , but he's wide awake when Haru squeezes his hand the next morning on the way to school.

 

 


End file.
